The invention concerns a crop hold down arrangement for a feeder implement, such as a pick-up that contains a rotating feeder and a conveyor arrangement, with a frame and a rotating roll, whose axis extends parallel to the axes of the feeder and/or the conveyor arrangement.
Hold down arrangements are conventionally used on feeder implements, such as pick-up mechanisms, in order to limit the upward movement of crop to be lifted by the feeder and to conduct it safely to a conveyor arrangement. Known hold down arrangements contain curved rods or prongs, along whose underside the crop, such as straw or hay, can slide. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,411,127 and 4,495,756 disclose examples of such arrangements.
Beyond that a hold down arrangement is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,410, that contains a rotating roll on a vertically pivoted frame. Due to the attitude of the frame, the roll is retained at a small distance from the ground, presses the windrow lying there flat and forms a gap with a tined pick-up drum, through which the crop is guided to the conveyor arrangement. This hold down arrangement has the disadvantage that it can escape upward upon changes in the height of the windrow only under high pressure and steadily increasing height of the windrow, and thereby, on occasion, pushes the crop ahead of itself, which can lead to disruption in the supply of the crop.
In a further hold down arrangement, according to German published application 39 22 695, two rolls precede the pick-up drum and the conveyor arrangement and are attached rigidly in a vertical direction. This hold down arrangement has the disadvantage that variations in the height of the windrow can also lead to stoppages and if the conveyor is reversed in order to clear a blockage, the ejected crop does not find enough space to exit.